There is a lot of interest in the concept of home is where you “park it” with regards to vans, campers, etc. and the idea of being mobile and wherever you find yourself at the end of a day road-tripping or traveling, you put the rig in park, and you are, effectively, “home”.

For backcountry hunters, this concept is more personal, as we typically carry our “home” on our backs; this may be tents, tarps or bivis, but the shelter and assorted gear we carry had to arrive via our own horsepower, some serious effort, and all of it stowed away in our backpacks. I for one, put considerable thought into what I will carry based on the season, weather and conditions, but regardless of what I am carrying, and where I will eventually stop for the day and call a flat spot in the timber or near a ridge “home”, my backpack is one of the most critical pieces of gear I own. It stores my food, water and warm layers. It keeps all of it clean and dry, and if everything goes right, it will help me carry out an elk or deer, the heavy quarters and rack loaded securely in my pack for the long haul out.

After the season has come to a close, and I clean and organize the gear used and abused, take stock of what needs to be fixed or replaced, I always make sure the pack gets a good dose of scrutiny; that thing needs to be clean and dry, and ready to roll for next season. It is interesting how I can look at it and recall certain hunts because of a specific blood stain or bit of pine sap or smudges of charred timber from a decade old burn. I put my pack through a fair bit of abuse, and whenever I pull it out for a scouting day or training with some sandbags, it gets my excited for the excursions ahead. I know that thing will be with me every step of the way, as important as my binoculars or bow, boots or rain gear. The pack evokes travel, effort and adventure. It is safety and efficiency, and a way for me to be prepared and fully mobile. At the end of the day, it is just a pack. And that pack has allowed me to experience some amazing country, soul-crushing loads and adventures.

Here is a great article on the need to “maintain hunting, angling, and outdoor recreation in a rapidly changing America”, as per TRCP’s CEO, Whit Fosburgh.

Several stats from the article:According to a 2011 survey by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), more than 37 million U.S. residents age 16 and older participated in hunting and/or fishing. Almost 12 million children from ages 6 to 15 also hunted and/or fished, making the overall number of hunters and anglers about 49 million. Collectively, sportsmen and women spent almost $90 billion to pursue those passions.

As a lifelong hunter and angler, we rely on solid, conservation-minded individuals to continue to fight the good fight when it comes to ensuring wild, public lands and waters are enjoyed and accessible for years to come. My five year old son is a perfect example of the next generation who will grow up in an area (we live in Bozeman, Montana) where the outdoors is literally out our backdoor – mountains and rivers, trails and paths and wide open wildness – require only a 10-minute drive to dive into. I cannot wait for the day when he joins me on his first hunt, or studies a rising trout with intent; but, all of it hinges on those opportunities and wide open spaces being there for him, and countless others, to enjoy and cherish.

There is no shortage of articles, commentary and opinions around the whole “field to plate” movement, and knowing where your food comes from. While at times it can be tiredly viewed as the domain only of hipsters shopping at a Co-Op who drive bio-diesel vans and churn their own butter, it is frankly, the right way to go about viewing food. I for one am a big proponent of it, primarily because I thoroughly enjoy the entire process of hunting, from scouting to training, practicing to the actual hunt, and ultimately, if everything goes according to plan, a cleanly killed big game animal on the ground. Then, the secondary phase of what I consider to be a three-part process begins — getting the animal broken down into manageable cargo, off the mountain and into a freezer, pronto.

Troves of content has been written about how to field dress, quarter, de-bone, trim, gut and skin every kind of animal that walks, flies or swims, and I doubt I will pass along any earth-shattering bits of knowledge. I am a competent “field butcher”, and frankly, enjoy the very visceral, real act of handling game once down, and know that as I work to cut away hide, sinew and fat, the recognizable shapes and forms begin to appear: loins, steaks, chops and roasts. Last fall, I helped haul a few hundred pounds of elk off the mountain as well as an antelope of my own, both of which reside in a chest freezer in my garage. The prime cuts are rapidly disappearing, frequently taking center stage during dinner at my home. I understand that not everyone has the ability, desire nor means to go out and spend days in the mountains and kill an elk or stalk within bow range of a bedded antelope, but each of us can play a small role in gathering, butchering, creating or growing some component of their dinner.

My most recent “Aha”moment was trying my hand at baking bread. I wanted to keep it simple, but hopefully create something worthy of accompanying an elk roast or antelope tenderloin. What I found was a straightforward recipe for Dutch oven bread, that takes very little time and ingredients to make. I am still working on a few details, as the two loaves I have made did not turn out quite as airy and chewy as I would like, but it is pretty damn tasty. Paired with wild game steak au poivre, grilled vegetables and a big red wine, and you have a fine dinner. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for shaping

2 teaspoons sea salt

1 teaspoon Red Star active dry yeast

1½ cups warm water (about 110 to 115 degrees F)

Directions

In a large bowl, whisk flour, salt and yeast until well mixed. Pour in warm water and use a wooden spoon to stir until a shaggy dough forms. The mixture will be wet and very sticky to the touch.

Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm place 8 to 18 hours until dough rises, bubbles and flattens on top.

Heat oven to 450 degrees F. Once oven is preheated, place a 6-quart Dutch oven (with cover) in oven 30 minutes before baking.

Punch down dough. Generously flour a sheet of parchment paper; transfer dough to parchment and, with floured hands, quickly shape into a ball. Place dough on parchment paper and sprinkle top lightly with flour. Top with a sheet of plastic wrap and let rest 30 minutes.

Bake bread 45 minutes covered, then another 10 to 15 minutes uncovered until dough is baked through and golden brown on top. Cool slightly before slicing.

And last but not least, the steak au poivre recipe. I have found antelope loin to be the best meat for this dish, but elk, deer, buffalo or moose would work also.

Antelope Steak Au Poivre (serves 2, double for larger groups)

1 lb. of antelope loin (backstrap) cut into 1″ thick steaks

1 tsp. each black, green and white peppercorns

Heavy tablespoon butter

Splash of olive oil

1 ½ oz. brandy (good bourbon works too)

2 tsp. red currant jelly

1 ½ tablespoon heavy cream

Salt

To prepare, first roughly grind the peppercorns and spread them out on a plate. Press the steaks on both sides into the pepper so they are evenly coated, but not a thick crust. Too much creates an overwhelming pepper taste. Shoot for a random sprinkling.
Break out your biggest, most well-seasoned cast iron skillet. Melt the butter and the oil, bringing it up to medium-high heat. Fry the steaks for about 1 ½ minutes each side for medium rare, and season with a bit of salt. Right before they are done, pour in the brandy and either use a match or the flame from a gas range to flambé the steaks (watch your eyebrows during this part.) When the flames die down, move the steaks to a warm plate and cover with foil while you work on the sauce.

Scrape loose all of the browned bits in the pan and then add the red currant jelly. When the jelly has melted and the liquid reduces down to the consistency of syrup, add in the heavy cream. Stir and allow it all to reduce a bit more, and remove from heat. Place the steaks on a plate and pour the sauce directly from the skillet onto the steaks. Mashed potatoes go exceptionally well with this dish and a good red wine.

There you go. Two recipes to make and enjoy prior to the hunting season, which will just make you even more eager to get outside come fall. Raise a glass to good eating, successful hunting and full freezers.

I recently came across the Japanese word Shokunin in an article. Further digging uncovered how it is also understood as the spirit of Shokunin. It means craftsmanship, however it is much more than that; one of the essential components of it is to make something for the joy of making it, and to do it carefully, beautifully, and to the best of your ability.

I have pondered this concise, succinct mindset and “spirit” of how things are done, and done well, with examination and purpose. While perhaps a bit of a stretch, I think this idea has a place in hunting, or perhaps a different way we approach the hunt.

An obvious place for Shokunin is practice. Whether at the range with a bow or on the bench with rifle in hand, the work that goes into practice requires care, examination and frankly, spirit. Some may scoff at that, but when I finally get in the groove with my bow, and have attained that perfect level of focus and awareness, it literally feels like I cannot miss the bullseye. The concentration, the drawing of the bow and that anticipation of finding the target and settling the pin on it is a very real thing. Breathe. Focus. Relax your bow hand. Squeeze the trigger. The opposite is also very true – when I rush the shot, or am distracted and scattered, I am not working in the spirit of Shokunin. Frustration builds and a cascade of micro-errors occur, compounding with each shot, and the result is poor shooting. Perfect practice makes perfect…

The other area that for me resonates loudly is after the shot on a successful hunt. The process of “field dressing” (I have always found that phrase odd) is something that requires a high level of mastery and discipline and attention to detail. I recall one of my first solo hunts, staring down at a large whitetail buck in the snow. With the sun fading fast, I had to get to work and quickly get this animal broken down and off the mountain. The challenge with this is you are not in a kitchen, you don’t have good lighting or a set of knives and steels at your disposal. It is usually cold, messy work with poor light, and a very unruly load rolling around on a slippery or steep slope. When all of that is factored in, I am always very impressed to see hunters deftly turn that animal into clean portions, bagged and ready for the pack out.

I sincerely enjoy this process, and gain valuable bits of knowledge each time I tag an animal and break out the knife and game bags. The long, linear cuts required to free the backstraps or the more straightforward actions of butchery to de-bone a large hind quarter all demand focus and skill, detail and strength. Hoisting an 80-pound rear quarter from an elk is hard work, no matter who you are. Along with clean technique, a hunter must work with speed in mind; heat, predators or the dread of a storm looming keeps the clock ticking. But with speed one must maintain their focus – it is not a time to hack and slash, cutting away anything that looks like meat, and stuffing it into gamebags like harried bank robbers on a heist.

The next step, and one that perfectly aligns with Shokunin is when the heavy packs are shrugged off at the trailhead and the large chunks and loins are turned into those recognizable and delectable cuts – roasts, steaks of all kinds, burger. My favorite ritual is prepping the backstraps of an elk, and removing every bit of silverskin and fat or gristle. What is left is a deep ruby-red cylinder of meat, one that takes the blade easily, with thick medallions an inch or more thick falling away. With four to a pack and wrapped tightly in plastic and butcher’s paper, they stack like gold bricks in the freezer. I always save one medallion to prepare after I am finished, washing up cutting boards and knives, putting away the tools of the trade. A dollop of butter in a cast-iron skillet bubbles and heats through, shimmering from the flame. A bit of sea salt, pepper and a minute each side delivers a piece of meat unlike anything that could ever come from a feed lot or farm – it is tender, earthy and so flavorful. Some will say “gamy” and I call BS on that. It tastes like an elk. It tastes wild and familiar at the same time. It is something that must be experienced to truly enjoy. And to get to that experience it can be broken down into these steps, hopefully aligning as best as I can with Shokunin:
– Perfect Practice
– Perfect Shot
– Skillfully Quartering and De-Boning
– Thoughtful Prep at Home
– Cooking with Care and Passion

“For the joy of making it, and to do it carefully, beautifully, and to the best of your ability.”

Swinging my leg over the endless downed logs that crossed our path at every turn had quickly become a cruel joke. It was midnight, maybe later, maybe earlier. I was too exhausted to care or be sure. The 85 pound backpack loaded with fresh elk meat tried to pull me over with every misstep, and my world was limited to the shallow cone of pale light cast from my headlamp — blown-down timber, branches, stars and endless darkness beyond. We were still two hours from the vehicle. I cinched the waist belt down hard and staggered on.

Rewinding the clock roughly 36 hours earlier found Josh and I hiking in to a spot on the map, our destination a flat spot for camp where we would hunt elk and deer for the next few days. Several hours later found us pounding in the last pegs on the shelter, hanging the bear bag and organizing our gear for the early morning start. As darkness settled in around us and we dug into our freeze dried dinners, a single rising bugle broke the silence not 200 yards away. Along with the two diminutive owls that kept us company from the upper branches of a pine tree, we took the lone bugle so close to camp as a good omen. Opening day could not come soon enough.

My good friend and hunting partner Josh had rolled a lucky 7 on this hunt, and drawn a bull tag for archery or rifle season. I was still able to hunt elk but limited to a cow only, which according to the biologists were numerous. Josh had already enjoyed success in the prior week during the Idaho opener, taking a nice healthy cow elk at 42 yards with his bow. With a head-start on filling the freezer, Josh was understandably going to be selective and hold out for a very good bull.

The opening day weather prediction was for rain, cooler temps and fog. Thankfully the rain never showed up in full force, but the fog settled in like wet smoke — we could barely see 50 yards, and everything beyond was like looking through gauze. The day started as slow as the fog moving from one canyon to the next, with no bugles to be heard or elk spotted. Setting up and cow calling produced zero results, and the entire mountainside was eerily quiet considering the massive amount of sign surrounding us; it was like showing up an hour after the party had ended. We knew the elk had been there, but they were ghosts now.

We scanned maps and the GPS seeking out areas that would hold elk, all the while very aware of the fact that while we had brought in more water with us than usual, our searches for seeps and small springs in likely areas had come up bone dry. Only damp, mossy bottoms and the white-washed stones of once running streams were all that remained. We might run out of water before we ran out of hunting days. The fact of it weighed on us, and that we may slog back out to the truck to restock on water, burning our hunt time rapidly. Such are the risks when hunting a new area for the first time, with only limited scouting opportunities.

Checking the map one last time, we turned our attention from the brushy creek bottoms to the steep hill in front of us, where we would climb up and top out on a long, wide ridgeline, covered with elk sign. Rubs and droppings were numerous. The elk themselves, were mysteriously not. Josh and I still-hunted our way through the timber, glassing as we went. Settling in to the fact that we may end this day, and frankly, the entire hunt without seeing an elk, I began to hike more than hunt. And as happens so quickly, the hunt went from dejection to opportunity in the blink of an eye.

At the moment the arrow made contact, the massive bull exploded away, with beating hooves and breaking brush left in his wake. Josh’s face said it all — he couldn’t believe what had happened, and it happened in an instant…

Not a minute prior as we were slowly walking through the timber, a tall, heavy rack appeared just over the curve of the hillside to the west. The swaggering motion told me the bull was walking, unhurried, directly parallel to our own path, just out of sight. His travel would put him within striking distance of Josh in the next 10 seconds. I watched as Josh knocked an arrow, slowly gained a few critical yards closer and drew his bow, waiting for an opening. The bull continued on his path, unaware. At 40 yards, the bull eased into a small gap between several trees, hesitating at Josh’s cow call. With my eyes glued to the bull, I heard the release of the bow and the unmistakable thwack as the arrow found its mark.

**********

The blood trailing ended up being a bit nerve-wracking, with long gaps of little or no blood, but in the end, a large tan shape emerged through the timber, putting our fears to rest. Walking up on the bull, his body size and rack did nothing but grow. In a word, he was massive. Easily the largest bull Josh had taken, and one of the biggest bulls either of us had seen up close, it was a once in a lifetime hunting experience and riding ‘co-pilot’ on the hunt, I was glad to have seen it firsthand.

All of the day’s frustrations, concerns and hopes culminated in a minute-long opportunity that could have so easily been missed. We could have taken longer to get to the top, or stopped to tie a bootlace or grab a quick bite to eat, the moment vanishing along with the massive bull into the timber. I have always been a believer that hunting is as much about luck as it is about skill, and today cemented that belief.

With photos out of the way, Josh and I began working on breaking the bull down into manageable loads. Nothing about handling this bull was going to be easy, and it took both of us pushing and pulling to get him into position on the steep hillside so we could carve out backstraps and remove quarters, his enormity pinned against a cluster of small, spindly pine trees. Darkness fell quickly, and with everything hung in the trees, we slowly headed out with the first of several heavy loads, exhausted. The hike out was a blur for me, and by the end, I was operating solely on auto-pilot putting one boot in front of the other, navigating by GPS, compass and the stars to the truck. As all backcountry elk hunters can attest to, nothing prepares you fully for that kind of fatigue, where you are worn down to your core. Shrugging off the pack on the tailgate, I looked at my watch — 2:20am. From the time the arrow hit until now, nearly 12 hours.

Even though I didn’t have a bull tag or a shot opportunity at a cow, it was still a very rewarding hunt; what started out as a 4-day adventure with high hopes ended up being one of the longest, hardest “day hunts” either of us had endured, with a once in a lifetime bull at the end of it all.

Hunting for most is typified by the classic experiences we seek out: bugling bulls, fresh tracks, finding that big buck in your crosshairs or finally putting your hands on the animal you have been chasing all day, week or season. These are those vivid punctuations that dot our stories while we are out in the wild, and those that get the most attention. But I find that many times, it is the more subtle moments during a hunt that stand out and endure along with that perfect shot, a short bloodtrail or a notched tag.

One of these “in between moments” that I always look forward to is a small ritual I do in antelope country. Sage is a very common type of flora in these areas, and its smell is so unique and linked to antelope hunting for me that I would feel lost if there were none. My custom is to pluck a small bunch of sage leaves and crush it, and smell deeply from my cupped hands. The earthy, herbaceous smell is powerful, and is part of my self-imposed good luck trick. Without it, I don’t think I would have as much luck on my side; at least that is my take on it. It is my version of a rabbit’s foot. It is completely ridiculous, but for me it completes the experience.